A/N: I'm not quite dead, okay, I'm very alive and I'm terribly sorry I got lazy, I bounced around my way too many fandom's, dealt with plot bunnies and ended up having writers block for my HTTYD fan fictions, but fear not, I'm not abandoning them, they will be finished! The issue comes mostly from the way my head works, I don't like forcing myself to write chapters because they always turn out…just kinda shit so I generally hop around stories until my brain decides to work with me which it is, so I'm gonna stop droning on and let you get into the chapter, hope you enjoy!
The teens glanced between each other and Dagur's grin took on a sinister edge as the roar subsided, Stoick looked to Hiccup and Hiccup glanced back in a silent gesture of 'I'll handle it.' Stoick inclined his head calmly.
"Hm, sounds like a wilds on the eastern side of the island," Hiccup hummed looking in the direction of the roar "Ruffnut Tuffnut, Zippleback's are your area of expertise, I trust we can leave it to you."
"Hold on their Hiccup," Dagur stepped towards the armored boy quickly "Is it not tradition to sign this treaty with the blood of the dragon?"
"You know something Dagur," Hiccup began "Tradition is a way of the old, I didn't take you for someone so much like your father."
The young berserker's eye twitched angrily at the veiled insult "You know, I would normally agree with you, but I find myself with an urge to rip something apart, so why don't we make this the anniversary, marking the end of this tradition."
"Ending it the way it started huh?" Hiccup rubbed at the edge of his mask "Didn't take you for the poetic type Dagur."
"I'm just full of surprises." Dagur responded with a suggestive grin.
"Alright, we will do it your way and as it was your idea I assume you will be leading this hunt?" Hiccup offered, Astrid caught a glint in his eye, it was a look that everything Hiccup planned was falling so perfectly into place and from the way Dagur puffed out his chest and smiled proudly, Astrid knew Hiccup was rolling the berserker in the palm of his hand.
"Of course I am." Dagur declared loudly as he strode passed Hiccup, being sure to slam the boy with a rough shoulder as he passed him, Hiccup watched after him unmoving and silent an amused glow in his impossibly green eyes.
"Hiccup," Stoick began, glancing at the twins who were suddenly very concerned about their dragon "I know you probably have a plan, I'm even more certain that I won't like it…but I want you to know I," Stoick paused "And the whole of Berk stand behind you."
Hiccup's eyes softened reflecting the smile on his face "Thanks dad."
His eyes narrowed as Dagur called to him from atop the hill leading into the forest "Our treaty with the Berserkers ends today, from this day onward, Berk stands with the dragons as open allies."
Stoick nodded his head and turned to the other adults, no doubt making plans to force the Berserker's fleet out of their waters.
"Snotlout, Ruff Tuff, help my dad with whatever he needs." Hiccup ordered simply the teens nodded and darted over to Stoick quickly, Ruffnut and Tuffnut throwing in an animated salute as they slid to a stop.
"What about us?" Astrid asked, Fishlegs lifted his eyebrow clearly curious as well.
"Now, an heir of Berk is nothing without his personal guard." Hiccup quipped and the pair grinned in understanding as they followed after Hiccup who began moving towards Dagur.
As the group moved through the forest quickly and silently, Hiccup studied the way Dagur moved, his habits, his speed, his strength, he used every excuse available to make Dagur go into defensive or offensive stances. Astrid and Fishlegs followed knowingly, but kept their faces impassive, only speaking when coming to defense when Hiccup created a falsified fact, agreeing readily and questioning how one such as Dagur didn't know.
The response was almost always "Of course I know about that." Followed by the berserker storming off into the forest, in those moments Hiccup would take a few moments to explain things to Fishlegs and Astrid.
After this was repeated a few times, Hiccup stopped speaking, instead focusing on moving silently as they approached the 'destination' Hiccup had set up, they paused a moment and Fishlegs spoke.
"I feel like this is sort of unnecessary, we could easily trick Dagur he's not the brightest of opponents," Fishlegs voiced quietly, glancing to where Dagur was eyeing the tree tops "Why go to these lengths."
"Allies that will eventually turn on us are far from allies," Hiccup sounded logically "Even if we tricked him, signed the treaty today and it lasted a month it would only be wasted effort, with this we can take out some of the Berserker Tribe's fighting strength as well as level the playing field for the future."
Fishlegs fell silent for a few seconds, Hiccup watched the blonde Ingermen calmly, Fishlegs nodded his head in understanding "You two can head back now, I'll be dealing with Dagur alone, my dad will need all the help he can get."
Fishlegs nodded and moved back through the forest, Astrid hesitated for a moment, grabbing Hiccups hand and turning him towards her, she lifted his face mask quickly and planted a quick kiss on his cheek "Be careful, Dagur's always been an unpredictable type."
Hiccup tilted his head and she could see the smirk on his face "Does milady have such little faith in me?"
Astrid rolled her eyes "See you when you get back."
Hiccup nodded his head and moved away from her, she watched his back disappear through the trees and turned and darted to Fishlegs silently.
Hiccup delayed Dagur for a few minutes to be sure that Astrid and Fishlegs had gotten a good bit of distance from them, they broke into a large clear field, long grass swayed in the wind as Hiccup moved to the centre of the field, Dagur trailing a small distance behind him.
"Where are the other two? Surely your personal guard aren't so easily left behind." Dagur began with a laugh.
Hiccup lifted his face mask silently and brought a hand to his mouth, the roar that left his throat caused a chill to run down Dagur's spine, the roar of a Nightfury was as unforgettable as it was terrifying, the roar that answered caused Dagur's head to snap into the sky. As the jet black beast swooped into the clearing and landed in front of Hiccup, the beast nuzzled into Hiccups outstretched hand and Dagur's eyes widened in surprise.
"W-What is the meaning of this?!" Dagur demanded angrily, hand moving to the hilt of his sword.
"You know something Dagur," Hiccup began slowly as he pulled his face mask back down "You have this nasty habit of talking down to the people around you."
Hiccup dropped quickly and rushed towards the berserker chief stopping shy of his face, forcing Dagur to stare through the slits in his helmet "I've always…really hated people that do that."
Dagur recoiled from Hiccup as the boy slammed his palm in the berserkers chest, Dagur narrowly avoided the blow by jumping backwards "Explain yourself!" Dagur demanded
Hiccup held his hand outstretched beside him "Berk stands with the dragons."
"So it is true, you really are a traitor!" Dagur hissed at him
"Hah!" Hiccup threw his head back in a bark of a laugh "I've betrayed nothing Dagur."
"By siding with that beast, you've betrayed your people, our traditions, our beliefs you betrayed everything!" Dagur's voice was laced with anger and venom.
"Berk has abandoned your tradition," Hiccup shot back as he slid his foot forward and lowered his weight "We will create our own traditions from now on."
"You will be crushed under my boot," Dagur threatened dangerously "You and the rest of your pathetic village, you will become a lesson in the history books, the entire archipelago will know of this treachery!"
"Most of this archipelago already knows," Hiccup countered "But you won't be alive to crush anybody."
Hiccup launched forward and Dagur moved to draw his sword, before the top of the hilt was kicked down, sheathing the blade before it could be drawn, Hiccup back stepped out of Dagur's reach and dropped low slamming his boot into Dagur's stomach as Dagur stumbled back he drew his sword and swung down at Hiccup who hopped back out of the way as the Berserker moved into his offensive.
Hiccup stepped, bobbed and weaved out of the blades range, watching Dagur closely.
Dagur grit his teeth, he knew Hiccup had been studying him when they were moving through the forest, he had felt the boys eyes on him at every movement, but had played it off, he had thought that all the observation in the world wouldn't give the runt of Stoick the Vast such fighting ability.
Describing Hiccup's mindset in that moment, as he danced out of the reach of Dagur's blade, would be calm, like the surface of a lake in a cave, completely undisturbed, until he had broken the surface, every millimeter he sank deeper into that mindset was a detail in Dagur's movement he noticed, a slight shift in the shoulder, a small alteration to the grip on his sword, every little detail became painfully obvious in those moments.
Dagur planted his foot and lifted his sword high, Hiccup took advantage of the strike, shifting from defensive to offensive in the blink of an eye, dropping down he kicked high knocking the sword flying into the air and out of Dagur's hands, the berserker chiefs surprise remained on his face for only a second as Hiccup slammed his elbow into the boys gut, Dagur lurched forward and Hiccup drove his palm into his opponents chin Dagur staggered back and Hiccup closed the distance with a powerful step as he rotated his palms and pulled them towards his chest, as his foot planted his hands shot forward slamming both palms hard into either side of Dagur's chest.
Dagur flew back as the blow landed with a thunderous crack, the berserker chief rolled and toppled over, ramming his fist into the ground to slide himself to a stop and sending a scathing glare towards Hiccup.
Hiccup straightened calmly, meeting the glare with a level stare as he tugged lightly on the straps beneath his shield, Dagur rose to his feet and his teeth flashed in a snarl as he reached behind himself and withdrew two curved daggers, Hiccup glanced at the weapons and lifted an eyebrow in curiosity, he swore he recognized the shape of those weapons.
"Look familiar don't they?" Dagur's grin widened as his eyes changed "Made from the teeth of a Red Death."
Hiccup shifted his feet slightly, his shield caught the light and glinted as he positioned it in front of himself in preparation, silently watching his opponent and awaiting his next move.
"You aren't the only one that can kill a beast that massive," Dagur laughed "But I did it without the help of a dragon!"
Dagur launched forward, Hiccup back stepped and spun forward, the shield on his arm slamming against the cross daggers Dagur wielded with the grate of steel, Hiccup's eyes met Dagur's for a few seconds as the two locked against each other, the violent rage caused Dagur's eyes to glow as they met with the calm emerald green of Hiccup's.
The two broke apart and Dagur rushed forward, relentlessly pounding against Hiccup's shield in a furious onslaught of blows Hiccup could only block to avoid getting overwhelmed, Dagur struck down and Hiccup seized the chance to unbalance his opponent, as Dagur's blow met his shield Hiccup struck up, deflecting the blow into the air and forcing Dagur back a couple of steps before Dagur could recover Hiccup shifted forward, blade snapping forward from the front of his shield as he drove it towards Dagur's head, the Berserker abandoned one of the daggers ad brought his arm down, the blade grated against the steel of Dagur's armguard and cut across his cheek.
The whistle of an arrow caused Hiccup to lift his free hand, the arrow clasped in the centre of his palm, his eyes turned to the shooter, a Berserker man crouched at the edge of the clearing was readying another shot as another ran towards Dagur, Hiccup snapped the arrow in his palm and Dagur slammed a kick into Hiccup's exposed side, using the force to push himself back he collected his other dagger and sheathed it.
"Sir, the attack came out of nowhere, half the fleet has already been destroyed we need to retreat for now!" The berserker soldier relayed to Dagur hastily as another arrow flew towards Hiccup, it pinged off of Hiccup's shield uselessly and Hiccup rotated quickly and readied his own dagger, flipping it to hold the blade he launched it with a quick flip of the wrist, the silver glinted a moment in flight before striking the archers neck, Hiccup turned an irritated glare onto Dagur.
"It would seem this match has been brought to an unsatisfying reprieve, but mark my words Dragonboy this isn't the end, for you or for Berk." Dagur gestured for the remaining man to move with a flick of his head and the berserkers fled from the clearing, Hiccup glanced at Toothless and debated chasing them down and killing them now, ultimately deciding against it, that was not the purpose of his fight against Dagur.
"You're right about that Dagur, this is only the beginning." Hiccup replied levelly, even though Toothless was the only one there to hear him.
A/N: I know this is super short, well, it's actually still almost 2,500 words so I mean it's not THAT short, but short on other my other chapters standards, simply put I think a lot has happened in this chapter and anything more I put in here would just be dragging it out, I think the ending for this little bit should be satisfactory and I can say with certainty there will be more updates coming for this story in the coming days, with that I hope you've all enjoyed this chapter and I will see you next time, now then
REPLIES!
ShadowSpirit020: Yeah, protective Hiccup everywhere! I don't know if I'd call this chaos, but trickery is afoot!
ArthurShade: Glad you enjoyed!
xXgabeXx: Psh, I have no idea what your quoting, I'd never write something like that, *utters silent prayer of thanks for editing* But, seriously thanks for pointing that out!
UnbreakableWarrior: Well, I hope you enjoy this one as much as the last :)
OechsnerC: Honestly not sure how to take this review, carry on.
Carl Solo: Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far and I can guarantee I will eventually slap a 'completed' sticker on it, so I hope you continue to enjoy the chapters!
The Dragon1010: I'm glad you find the story interesting and I look forward to any opinions you have in the future!
dark shadey01: I know this is SUPER late, but Happy Birthday anyway, I hope you had a good one! I'm glad you've been enjoying the story so far! Also, it would completely defeat the purpose of a cliffhanger if you liked them so I'm taking the veiled compliment that may or may not actually be there.
As always a big thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorites or follows this story, you guys, you da real MVP'S, I don't know why I said that but I hope you enjoyed this all the same!